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Overuse by Martin St-Louis: Mike Matheson (at 25 minutes per game) hurts the habs
Mathis Therrien
Overuse by Martin St-Louis: Mike Matheson (at 25 minutes per game) hurts the habs
Credit: Getty Images

In this horrible slump of the Montreal Canadiens, we can establish several clear facts that lead to the team’s current failures at such an important moment.

The first line is no longer producing, the team is lacking opportunism, the powerplay is no longer working, Jake Evans’ line is completely dry, Arber Xhekaj and David Savard are struggling, the goalies are not helping the club, etc.

These are all facts that lead to the Habs’ lamentable failures this week.

However, for me, and for many Habs fans, the one that stands out the most, and hurts the team the most right now, is one that I didn’t even mention earlier.

This fact is that Mike Matheson is playing too much.

Again last night, the Quebec defenseman had a bad game, as he cost his team a goal at a crucial moment, in addition to making many mistakes and playing poorly throughout the game.

It’s clearly not an easy season for Matheson, but seriously, it’s even worse over the last few games, when the Habs would need him and good performances from him the most.

Matheson has been costing his team almost a goal per game lately, and this is unacceptable from such a veteran.

Last night, as we can see in the sequence, he played nonchalantly and tried to do everything himself, when he could have simply and easily cleared the puck from the zone.

Result: he was easily stripped of the puck, and this led to a great scoring chance for the Hurricanes, forcing Lane Hutson to take a penalty.

And on this powerplay, the Hurricanes scored their winning goal, on a play where, again, Matheson played poorly and lacked intensity to go get the puck in the corner.

Against the Flyers, Matheson also had a bad game, especially on Matvei Michkov’s second goal.

In short, clearly, the Quebec defenseman is hurting the Habs right now, and this is quite constant, at a crucial moment in the season.

So, of course, we can blame Matheson, but is he the only one to blame for his struggles?

No, he’s not.

We have to give a large part of the blame to the coaches, who insist on continuing to overuse Matheson, even though he’s clearly not keeping up and is making too many mistakes.

Rather than reducing Matheson’s ice time, St-Louis and his team (especially Stéphane Robidas) continue to play him 25 minutes per game.

The guy is clearly exhausted and at the end of his rope, but we keep playing him as much as the best defensemen in the entire NHL.

Matheson has already given a lot to the Habs, and he has helped the team a lot, especially last year, and all this while he’s not even a number one defenseman.

It’s time to give the 31-year-old veteran a break, because seriously, it’s sinking the Canadiens’ season.

It’s not a quality and an advantage to have a defenseman who can play 25 minutes per game if he’s hurting the team more than anything else.

Matheson has had a lot of success in Montreal, and expectations for him have risen significantly, but now, it’s too much, and Matheson has become a defenseman who should play around 17 minutes on a second pair.

Let’s see if the coaches will stop overusing Matheson, especially now that Kaiden Guhle is back.


Overtime

– The most frightening moment of Kaiden Guhle’s life has left a big mark.

– The Rocket will be back in action today.

– The Habs need a win from the Lightning against the New York Islanders.

– Amazing.

– CF Montreal’s first game since Laurent Courtois was fired.

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